小花车前 xiao hua che qian

Plantago bungei Steudel; P. pusilla Bunge (1836), not Nuttall (1818).

Herbs, annual. Taproot tenuous. Leaves basal; petiole inconspicuous; leaf blade linear to narrowly linear, 1-13 × 0.1-0.4 cm, thickly papery, glabrous or abaxially sparsely white pubescent, vein 1, base attenuate, margin entire or remotely denticulate, apex subobtuse. Spikes capitate to narrowly cylindric, 0.5-7 cm, densely flowered or interrupted basally from middle; peduncle 1-12 cm, white pubescent; bracts narrowly ovate to ovate, 2-3 mm, glabrous, keel extending to apex. Sepals 1.5-2 mm, glabrous, keel extending to apex; lower sepals narrowly obovate to elliptic-ovate; upper sepals obovate. Corolla white, glabrous; lobes oblong-ovate, 0.8-1 mm, erect, patent, or reflexed, apex subacute. Stamens adnate to near apex of corolla tube, usually covered by erect corolla lobes, rarely exserted; anthers ovoid, ca. 0.3 mm. Pyxis conic-ovoid, 3-4 mm, circumscissile near base, with 7-15 seeds. Seeds reddish brown to blackish brown, fusiform, 1-1.5(-2) mm, ventral face flat; cotyledons parallel to ventral side. Fl. May-Jul, fr. Jun-Aug. 2n = 24.

Saline meadows, alkaline soils; ca. 200 m. N Xinjiang (Junggar Pendi) [Kazakhstan, W Mongolia, S and SW Russia; SW Asia, Europe].